* 13 March 2018 [https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/higher-ed-daily-brief/women-want-to-rebalance-wikipedia/news-story/0a428fc89f637328e2dc0bbd0ecbf8c2 Women want to rebalance Wikipedia] The Australian Higher Education Daily Brief story on the University of Sydney Women in Wikipedia 2018 edit-a-thon.

* 13 March 2018 [https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/higher-ed-daily-brief/women-want-to-rebalance-wikipedia/news-story/0a428fc89f637328e2dc0bbd0ecbf8c2 Women want to rebalance Wikipedia] The Australian Higher Education Daily Brief story on the University of Sydney Women in Wikipedia 2018 edit-a-thon.

* 13 March 2018 [http://redwritinghood.blogs.latrobe.edu.au/2018/03/why-shut-up-and-wiki-tseen-khoo.html Why Shut Up and Wiki?] Blog post by Tseen Khoo about La Trobe University's community of practice

* 13 March 2018 [http://redwritinghood.blogs.latrobe.edu.au/2018/03/why-shut-up-and-wiki-tseen-khoo.html Why Shut Up and Wiki?] Blog post by Tseen Khoo about La Trobe University's community of practice

Revision as of 13:39, 2 April 2018

The mission of Wikimedia Australia is to support the Mission of the Wikimedia Foundation in Australia in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.

We undertake outreach activities, develop resources and build systems that empower and engage people to collect, develop, share and promote Free Cultural Works. In recognition of Australia's role in the Asia-Pacific region, we will assist in building the capacity of the Wikimedia and Free Culture movements internationally.

Overview of activities

Boer War soldier from Queensland, image from the State Library of Queensland Collection

GLAM_WIKI panel

Wikimedia Australia formed in 2008, and was incorporated on 6 August 2008 [1]. Our first event GLAM-WIKI which was supported by Australian War Memorial, Wikimedia Foundation, CustomWare and ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation occurred in August 2009. This event brought together people from more then 50 Galleries, Libraries Archives and Museums from across Australia and New Zealand to share ideas on the free exchange of knowledge.

Our next major project was in conjunction with the State Library of Queensland with the uploading of approximately 23,000 images[2] from their collection, combined with this there has been a number of editing workshops in libraries across Queeensland. This was then followed with a similar program with the State Library of New South Wales who in 2013 hosted Australia first Wikimedian in residence.

Wikimedia Australia and Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) have been working together on a number of projects to improve the available information on paralympic sports. After proving themselves knowledgeable the APC arranged media accreditation for Wikimedians to cover the 2012 Paralympics in London. This was followed up with a project to gain accreditation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Socchi, Wikimedians are also working on documenting many other sports as well including wheel chair basketball and wheel chair rugby.

Freopedia QR code

In 2012 Wikimedia Australia combined with The Fremantle Society to take Wikipedia from computer screens out into the streets with Australia's first WikiTown in Fremantle, known as Freopedia. This project is placing QR codes on buildings, monuments and other places linked with Fremantle history. With links to Australian Prime Minister John Curtin, US President Hubert Hoover and bushranger Moondyne Joe to Western Australia's oldest building Freopedia QR codes provide access to Wikipedia articles about the history of Fremantle and Western Australia.

In 2014 a second WikiTown was establish in Toodyay Western Australia, the Shire of Toodyay is taking the lead on this project with Wikimedia Australia and Western Australian editors providing the support and backup they need to be successful. In 2015 Wikimedia Australia joined with Indigenous studies faculties at University of Western Australia and Curtin University to support the first Indigenous community lead project writing Wikipedia in an Indigenous language. Noongarpedia has also resulted in the start of a Noongar Wikitionary both the nys.wikipedia and the nys.wikitionary are currently in the incubator stage

Additional activities

Wikimedia Australia also has a number of programs to specifically support volunteers in their ability to create free content.
These programs include;

Community engagement: information on Wikipedia takes Toodyay show, where editors spent the day promoting engagement with the local community, this was followed up with a workshop on editing Wikipedia.

Wikimedian in Residences: the monthly GLAM reports include projects related to Wikimedians in Residences in the August 2013 issue the SLNSW reported on their Wikimedian in residence experience with User:Whiteghost.ink

Engagement

Wikimedia Australia also engages with many Government Agencies, Community groups and educators to help share, improve and promote the availability of freely licensed Australian content online.

We can't do this alone we also need your help be that through financial assistance, project partnerships or just providing access to materials if you would like to help improve the "sum of all knowledge" please contact the committee with your proposal.